Researchers studying the relationship between honesty, age, and self-control conducted an experiment on 160 children between the
ages of 5 and 15. The researchers asked each child to toss a fair coin in private and to record the outcome (white or black) on a paper sheet, and said they would only reward children who report white. Half the students were explicitly told not to cheat and the others were not given any explicit instructions. Differences were observed in the cheating rates in the instruction and no instruction groups, as well as some differences across children's characteristics within each group. Required:
Identify the population of interest in the study.
In research methodology, the population of interest is the comprehensive group of individuals, institutions, objects, and so forth who possess some common characteristics that are the interest of the researchers. In our example, the researchers are studying the relationship between honesty, age, and self-control. The common characteristic of the group in this case is the age group between the ages of 5 and 15. This characteristic distinguishes the children of this age group from other individuals, institutions, objects, and so forth.
